I’m sitting at a picnic table outside of a house with some folks from Lightsong. We’re chatting and I look up into the large oak tree that we’re sitting under and there’s a very large hummingbird. I’m struck by how large it is, probably the size of a robin. It has a thick black beak and purple, green, and magenta feathers. It’s amazingly colourful and I watch it with amusement because it’s so oversized for a hummingbird which slows down it’s movement. I tell the others about it and mimic it’s slow moving wings with figure eight motions. I ask it if I can have a feather as it jumps from branch to branch. It’s now right overhead, and flies away, leaving the most exquisite feather for me, that gracefully descends down to the end of the table. I ask the person next to me to hand it to me and I thank the bird for this gift. I look back up into the tree and realize there are more beautiful feathers there. I look back to the feather and it’s now attached to a construction of other feather and colourful materials, but inside is a wooden frame with nuts and bolts holding it together, as if it were a man-made wing.
The group I’m with gets up and moves to another location and starts doing a sort of song practice. While I listen to them sing, something catches my attention, like a large cast iron machine, similar to a Singer sewing machine. I look back and the singing disbands.
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This is the night after the Lowanpe ceremony. I awaken and receive a beautiful prayer song in Lakota.
